Pooper Scooper Law Also Applies to Pregnant Teens

If you're pregnant, and your baby daddy is being deployed to Afghanistan, and besides, you were totally going to pick up your dog's poop in a minute... should you still be fined $250 for not doing so quickly enough? The Daily News reports that 19-year-old, 9-days-overdue Alicia Fernbacker of Maspeth was slapped with such a fine last week by a sanitation department agent.

Her story is that she was taking a breather ("I was just relaxing") on her stoop, while waiting for a ride to school and letting her dog out. But after the pup took care of business, she stalled on the clean-up. She says, "I told [the agent] I was going inside to get a tissue. And he told me it didn't matter." Her summons states that she "made no attempt to remove dog feces in a legal manner."

Sanitation Department spokesman Vito Turso says that no one is above the law, but that Fernbacker "should fight it just like anybody else who believes they didn't deserve a ticket."

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Carlson in News on September 21, 2009 3:30 PM

Comments [rss]

MrCow

who uses a tissue to pick up dog shit?

gpt

Next time all of you are 9 months pregnant without a supportive partner around to do the stuff that becomes difficult (like bending over to pick up after your dog) I hope you get stuck walking behind some asshole smoking as he walks along the sidewalk and you can't get around him and have to breath his cancerous exhalations (for which he is not fined a penny for leaving all over town).

Powerhugs

Listen Preggo - You have a dog in the city or anyplace - you had better be prepared to clean up after it....Period!!! People shouldn't have to navigate the streets because you are too lazy to be a considerate citizen..And Im tired of stepping in Dog crap...

Steven

You should have a bag and tissue ready. She was in no shape or form going to pick up after her dog poop. It's obvious she is using being pregnant overdue as a way for people to gain sympathy over her.

woodendesigner

Keep handing the tickets out to the selfish people. I seriously doubt that she was "about to get a tissue". If the dog craps then pick it up. If you can'[t handle that then you are really going to have problems with that kid.

Tgirl

lets just hope that she's more responsible with the kid

Spirit of 76

What, you don't want to smell a soiled diaper for 20 minutes or so while the mother tells you she's getting ready to change it?

PTG in nyc

We should instead start fining teens for getting pregnant.

BotanistPrime

I hope this girl lives in my neighborhood... I could use a little less dog crap on my streets.

mocanlagunas

GOOD!!!!

Dear Sanitation Dept Agent,

Can you come to Inwood? Pleeeease?

It's obvious that she wasn't going to pick it up. As GothamTommy said, she knew the dog was going to go, and she didn't have a plastic bag or tissue (yeah, right!).

GothamTommy

Usually, when most people walk a dog, they expect the dog to "do his business".

Moral of the story -- this girl has a history of doing things and not thinking about the consequences. ZING!

farleft

Ms. Preggie better learn to clean up poop fast! Poop goes the weasel.

gothamguy

It is just a pet peeve of mine, but WTF does that fact that her "baby daddy is being deployed to Afghanistan" have to do with anything?

In stories about foreclosure or custody rights, someone being deployed overseas is relevant when it was a cause of the situation. In this story, not even close.

mellow_fellow

[S]aid her father, Donald Fernbacker..."...She has never been a bad kid..."
Um, she got pregnant at the age of 19 without being married and still living at home.

Kojak

That doesn't necessarily mean shes bad...

skowl

If she's 9 days overdue, she probably can't even bend over. Not that she shouldn't have to clean it up, but the sanitation dude could have been nicer.

Wza

Gotta make that quota.

skowl

If she's 9 days overdue, she probably can't even bend over. Not that she shouldn't have to clean it up, but dude could have been nice.

JacqueMehoff

I have a feeling she wasn't going to pick up after her dog anyway. usually people who walk dogs do it for a reason, one reason is the dog needs to crap after being stuck in a home for 8 hours and the owner brings something with him/her to clean up.